The latest job cuts at English National Opera are neither a solution nor
a bottom line but a stop-gap in a never-ending attritional process at an
institution that does not know where it is heading. Loretta Tomasi, the
managing director, announced on Friday that she needs to trim the
workforce by ten percent, or 45 jobs. It is hard to see how she can
shrink the orchestra any further – there are only eight first violins
left on the books – or redress a morale droop that has been exacerbated
by insensitive middle-managers. The state of crisis is unabated.

The trouble lies, as ever, in a lack of clarity and direction. I gather
that Tomasi and artistic director John Berry put up a budget for next
season of £32 million while showing only £30.5 million in projected
revenue. Asked by a board member how they proposed to bridge the gap,
they said: raise ticket prices. And if the public resist? The silence
was deafening. Tomasi, to her credit, admits that after two Arts Council
bailouts worth £20 million no public lifebelt will ever be thrown ENO’s
way again.

Despite the capture of an exciting young music director in Ed Gardner
and a general uplift in production standards, ENO is weighed down by
makeshift management and a top-heavy board that contributes more by way
of self-interest than expertise or cash. The hole in its heart is a
refusal to reconsider archaic practices. A newcomer who suggested that
it might no longer be necessary to sing all operas in English when the
words are flashed up in surtitles above the stage was told that if he
didn’t like opera in English he should leave by the door through which
he had just entered.

The chairman, Vernon Ellis, acknowledges the need for reforms. Whether
he can write a new blueprint before the Treasury axe falls this summer
seems unlikely given the latest decision at the Coliseum to proceed
timidly with death by small cuts.

NL:

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